History has followed Zac Purton throughout the 2022/23 Hong Kong season with landmark achievements and the pattern is likely to continue as the end of an extraordinary season approaches.
On Thursday (6 July), Zac became only the second jockey to ride 1,600 wins in Hong Kong after Douglas Whyte (1,813 wins) and at Sha Tin this Sunday (9 July) he has the chance to equal and then eclipse Joao Moreira’s single-season record of 170 wins in a season.
The pace at which Zac has accumulated his wins this term has been remarkable. He reached 1,500 wins on 24 December at his 8,896th Hong Kong career ride – 397 fewer than it took Douglas (9,293) to reach the same mark – and, now, with 169 victories to his credit after 688 rides this season, he is poised to reach 170 wins faster than Joao, who had 710 mounts to set his record.
At 40, Zac is riding in peak form with six wins from 15 rides at the past two meetings alone and a seasonal strike rate of 24.56%. Already a five-time Hong Kong champion, Zac’s professionalism and desire remains undimmed and will be fascinating to see if he can eventually catch Doug’s career record in Hong Kong.
The importance to Hong Kong racing of Conghua continues to grow with world-class facilities that allow horses to rest, recuperate and ultimately prepare for their return to racing in Hong Kong.
So far this season, 132 horses have won 166 of 804 races (20.64%) directly after spending time in Conghua before travelling back to Hong Kong with Ricky Yiu’s Watch Buddy joining the list with his win at Happy Valley on Thursday.
There is a direct correlation between success in the Hong Kong trainers’ championship and Conghua.
In 2020/21, Caspar Fownes won the championship for the fourth time with a record 29 winners coming from Conghua; Frankie Lor bettered Caspar’s haul with 32 winners in 2021/22 and won the title.
John Size has so far produced 19 winners – a stable record – directly from Conghua and leads this season’s Hong Kong championship – 74 to 64 – from Frankie with only three meetings left.
Frankie has the most Conghua-prepared winners of any trainer this season with 23, four more than John, while Ricky Yiu (19) and Francis Lui (17), who are also having excellent campaigns with horses conditioned in Conghua.
At Sha Tin on Sunday, the feature race is the Swaine Cup carded as Race 2 at 4.30pm for Class 1 horses over 1200m and carries prizemoney of HK$3,465,000.
The pace in the race will be good with Master Eight going forward from the outside gate. Adios should sit behind the leader from his inside draw and Ima Single Man on speed as well.
Duke Wai has had an excellent season winning over this class and distance on 5 March when he came from behind to run past Courier Wonder to win. He was competitive in Dubai finishing fifth in the G1 Al Quoz Sprint and then was sixth to Lucky Sweynesse in the Chairman’s Sprint Prize on 30 April. With a solid pace in front, I make Duke Wai and win and place chance.
Courier Wonder has been consistent at the highest level this term, placed fourth at G1 level on three occasions as well as a good second to Lucky Sweynesse in the Chairman’s Sprint Prize. At his latest run he was fourth again in the G3 Sha Tin Vase on 4 June. This is an easier assignment for his and with Hugh Bowman aboard he is my selection to win.
Of the other runners Adios steps up in class but has a light weight and a good draw with Alexis Badel aboard and is a place chance. Master Eight, Rewarding Together and Ima Single Man have all been to Conghua since their last runs and will be trying to finish the season on a high.
The last race of the meeting is the Chairmen’s Day Handicap for Class 3 horses over 1400m and is carded as Race 11 at 9.15pm. It is a competitive race to finish an excellent meeting honouring the past Chairmen of the Club.
It is a race in which five runners Capital Delight, Romantic Charm, Street Conqueror, Noble Win and Silver Sonic are all chasing a HK$1 million PP bonus for their owners.
My win selection is Maldives for Brenton Avdulla and David Hall, who is having an excellent finish to the season, with Setanta, Silver Sonic and Romantic Charm all having place chances.
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